Thursday, March 28, 2013

Postscript on a Teacher

For someone playing as significant a role in blind and deaf
student Samuel Bean’s life as did his teacher, Mary White Eastman, there is not
much else that can be found about her online. She evidently remained single and
focused her entire life on education and advocacy for the blind.

MARY WHITE EASTMAN,
for more than thirty years pupil-teacher and teacher of blind
"problem" children, recently passed away. A graduate of the California School for the Blind in 1892, she taught
the ungraded class in the school until forced by ill health to retire in 1927.
She worked as home teacher at her own expense. Miss Eastman attended our
conventions for a long period of years and was a conspicuous figure. Financial
independence enabled her to do many acts of kindness in assisting the needy.

While it was not surprising to see the committee’s
characterization of Mary White Eastman as a “conspicuous figure,” there were a
couple other notes that piqued my curiosity. Even then, a sense of the woman’s
generosity made the comments about working “at her own expense” and doing “many
acts of kindness in assisting the needy” seem quite in character. After all,
among other philanthropic acts, Miss Eastman was noted in the Annual Report of the Woman’s Presbyterian
Board of Missions of the Northwest to have been a Life Member since 1882 (at
which point she was barely twelve years of age).

However, how did a woman—a single woman, incidentally—in
that time period manage to achieve financial independence?

A couple of Salt
Lake City area newspapers help reveal the answer to
that question.

In an article stretching below the fold line in the
September 10, 1908, Salt Lake Tribune,
headlines claimed:

Suit Filed for Nearly
a Million

Edward P. Ferry of
This City is Defendant in Two Actions.

Former Litigation is
Basis of Proceedings

Federal Court Is Arena
Chosen for Contest Over Immense Fortune

The front page of the Deseret Evening News the night before explained, “Michigan Heirs of the late
William M. Ferry file suit for a fortune.” Halfway down the page, the article
named the heirs. Among those names was that of Mary White Eastman.

Miss Eastman, you may remember, was the daughter of one
Galen Eastman and his Michigan-born wife, the former Mary Ferry. Evidently, it
was that Ferry family from which Mary
White Eastman descended.

By the time any inheritance remaining from the estate of her
Ferry progenitor was settled and distributed among those of her remaining
twelve siblings—not to mention any other relatives also named in the
proceedings—the “fortune” had probably dwindled to a much more modest amount.

Still, given the economy of the time—and the comparatively
frugal habits of the public in general during that era—whatever portion of the
inheritance Mary White Eastman received would have enabled her to live with a
modicum of comfort—and blessed freedom from worry about having to make her way
in a world not yet accustomed to conceding that some women just might need to
work to earn their way in life.

10 comments:

It was a rather unfortunate choice of words--though, considering the time, hardly surprising. On the other hand, think about it: if an unexpected injury had snuffed out both your sight and hearing in your preteen years, how would you have felt? I wouldn't be surprised if Sam were at some point characterized as a "problem" child, himself.

Excellent sleuthing on the way Mary White Eastman achieved financial independence. A windfall, that settlement! It is still hard today for women to get to this independence on their own. Much more possible for a team of man-and-wife.

At first I thought Mary was the one who married same, and felt sad for him, but the dates suggest she would have been too old, maybe twice his age. It's hard to change my focus away from Sam. I now think of him in the same breath as Helen Keller.

Yes, Mariann, Mary Eastman was about sixteen years Sam's senior--which would never do during a time period like theirs. I wouldn't be surprised, though, to learn that she might have had her hand in bringing Sam and his future wife together, though. Unfortunately, at this point, I don't know.

While I was reading about her, Wendy, do you know I had to keep reminding myself that she was blind? She seemed so accomplished, so determined, that nothing seemed to stop her. It was almost like her blindness was invisible. I know that should be the goal, actually--that blindness should be no barrier--but the reality of it all is that someone like Mary had to work all the harder to accomplish without her sight what others may have taken for granted and achieved much more easily.

About Me

It is my contention that, after a lifetime, one of the greatest needs people have is to be remembered. They want to know: have I made a difference?
I write because I can't keep for myself the gifts others have entrusted to me. Through what I've already been given--though not forgetting those to whom I must pass this along--from family I receive my heritage; through family I leave a legacy. With family I weave a tapestry. These are my strands.